The 23 biggest Bay Area restaurant openings of the first quarter of 2015

(John Storey / Special to the Chronicle)Californios: A modern Mexican tasting menu, from the husband-and-wife ownership pair of Carolyn Cantu and chef Val M. Cantu. (Earned THREE STARS from Chronicle critic Michael Bauer)

Traditionally, the first three months of the year are slow when it comes to restaurant business — and hence, restaurant openings.

But this year, the Bay Area has seen an explosion of restaurants in the opening quarter of 2015. Even more remarkably, many of the new places are important and notable restaurants — and quite good. Four have already earned three stars from Michael Bauer.

Long-awaited blockbuster restaurants like Mourad and Liholiho Yacht Club finally arrived in full force, making national waves. Smaller, but no less ambitious, chef-driven restaurants like Californios, Aster, Hawker Fare, Sous Beurre and Al’s Place all arrived a few weeks apart in the Mission; think about that for a second.

While four-star Manresa reopened post-fire in Los Gatos, chef-owner David Kinch and his crew also brought along an adjacent bakery. The Future Bars empire was extended to Berkeley with Tupper & Reed, while Thomas Keller spread his wings to Silverado with another temporary restaurant as the French Laundry prepares for a reopening next week. Tack on significant debuts in December 2014, like State Bird sequel the Progress and Chris Cosentino’s Cockscomb, and San Francisco food groupies have been busy catching up with all the openings.

So yeah: Busy time. Here is the list of newcomers, with links to our Inside Scoop coverage of each one.

1. Burma Love
2. Californios
3. Ad Lib
4. Buma’s
5. Mourad
6. Sous Beurre Kitchen
7. Hawker Fare
8. Liholiho Yacht Club
9. Al’s Place
10. The Market/Azalina’s
11. Ginto
12. ManresaBread
13. Tupper & Reed
14. Sunset Reservoir Brewing Co.
15. Dragon Beaux
16. Nourish Cafe
17. Valette
18. Jersey Pizza
19. The Yard at Mission Rock
20. B-Side Baking Co.
21. BDK Restaurant & Bar
22. Aster
23. All Spice

Article and image sourced from http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2015/04/03/the-23-biggest-bay-area-restaurant-openings-of-the-first-quarter-of-2015/#31778-2